Monday, October 28, 2013

Race Recap: OUA Championships 2013

Well that was exciting. Mac played host to the 2013 OUA Championships on Saturday at the Chedoke Golf Course in Hamilton (just in case you had forgotten). Though the weather may have been less than ideal, the performances were stellar and the weather didn't dampen the fans spirits one bit.

On the women's side, Courtney Patterson and Maddy McDonald led the way in 24th and 25th respectively. Kiersten Myers and Emily Nowak once again ran side by side the entire race, finishing in 31st and 32nd, only 0.2 seconds apart. The last scoring Marauder was Raquel Burgess in 41st, and rounding out the top 7 was Megan Beverly in 51st and captain Chelsea Mackinnon in 53rd. As a team, the women placed 6th.

What a race for the men. Going into the race ranked 4th in most polls, the Marauders surprised everyone to take down both Queen's and Windsor for the silver medal, only the 2nd OUA medal in team history (also crushing the previous point record of 86, scoring 56 this year). Captain Blair Morgan and Taylor Reid finished 6th and 7th to take first team All-Star status, while Connor Darlington and Lionel Sanders crossed the line in 13th and 14th to make second team All-Stars. Just missing the top 14 was Taylor Forbes in 16th. Rounding out the men's squad was Gabriel Ghiglione in 44th and rookie Paul Rochus in 57th.

Full Results
Update All-Time List: Women
Update All-Time List: Men
Marauders.ca Recap

Also, congratulations are in order to Maddy McDonald for receiving the OUA Community Service award, and coach Rory Sneyd for picking up OUA Coach of the Year.

Marauders.ca awards article

Up next is the CIS national championships held by Western at the Thames Valley Golf Course on November 9th.

Friday, October 25, 2013

Race Preview: OUA Championships 2013

Classic Kitely-McInnes Report #3
Jeremy Walsh's impressive team/individual predictor
Trackie predictions thread

Finally, championship season is here. Tomorrow, the best cross country athletes in the province will test their mettle against each other, and against the Chedoke golf course in Hamilton for the first time ever, and potentially the weather, which is looking to be 9 degrees with an 80% chance of rain. Given the rain Hamilton has gotten this week, its going to be messy either way.

Course Maps:

Women: Race goes at 11am, and the women do two of the 3km loop.


Men: Gun at 12pm, they start with a single 1km loop and continue on to three 3km loops. Something tells me they will be hurting by the time they hit the hill on loop number 4.

Women:
Even with the loss of the majority of last years top seven, the addition of some strong rookies and grad student Kierstin Myers means that the women will be looking to continue their streak of OUA medals this year. Leading the way will be Maddy McDonald, who is coming off a strong outdoor track season and will be looking to improve on her 7th place finish from King City last year. Courtney Patterson and captain Chelsea Mackinnon, the only other returning top 7 athletes, will be using their championship experience and the home course/crowd to their advantage. Rookie Emily Nowak and Kierstin Myers have been within seconds of each other both times they've raced together, and will be pushing each other harder than ever come tomorrow. 2nd year Raquel Burgess and 2009 World Track and Field Championships competitor Megan Beverly round out the top 7.

Men:
With the loss of only their 7th man from last year, the mens squad is looking the best they ever have. Things are looking good for the team to come home with their 2nd-ever OUA podium finish. Lionel Sanders is going to be putting the hurt on the competition, especially with the home course advantage. Who knows how to hurt better than an Ironman champion anyways? Connor Darlington, coming off a strong summer season with a Canada Summer Games gold medal, will be looking to improve on his race in Montreal and threatening some guys for at least a 2nd team All-Star spot. Taylor Forbes, Blair Morgan, and Taylor Reid are showing no signs of slowing down, and with a solid 2 weeks of running behind them after Montreal will be surprising some people come race time (I know my opinion may be slightly biased). Rounding out the top 7 are 2nd-year Gabe Ghiglione, who surprised a lot of people after being cut from the team last year, and rookie Paul Rochus. Come tomorrow, the boys will be looking to run down Windsor while staving off competition from a strong Queen's team.

Cheerios:
As always, I'm predicting another overwhelming win in the cheering department for Mac. See below:




One last article from the Sil before the race. See you on the course!

Sunday, October 20, 2013

OUA Promo Video and Sil Race Recap


Thanks to Maxine Gravina for putting together a short promo video for the upcoming race.

Here is the Sil's recap from last week's excursion to Montreal.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Athlete of the Week and Marauders.ca Article

Congratulations to Maddy McDonald on being named Pita Pit's athlete of the week based on her bronze-medal performance on Saturday! There is also a recap of the race up on Marauders.ca.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Race Recap: Interlock 2013

This Thanksgiving weekend, the Marauders traveled to Montreal to compete in the RSEQ/AUS's annual Interlock meet. It was a good chance to face the full Laval and Queen's squad, both of which had not raced their full teams against Mac this year.

On the women's side, the Marauders were once again led by Maddy McDonald who ran her way to a bronze medal. Just outside of the top 10 was Courtney Patterson in 11th, followed by Emily Nowak and Megan Beverly in 25th and 27th respectively, and rounding out the scoring for Mac was Raquel Burgess 30th. The women ended up in 3rd, a mere 7 points behind 2nd place Dalhousie.

The men placed 3 athletes within 12 seconds of each in the top 10, with Connor Darlington in 5th, Taylor Reid in 9th, and Blair Morgan in 10th. Not far behind was Taylor Forbes in 20th and Gabriel Ghiglione in 22nd, with the team finishing 3rd behind Laval and Queen's.

Full Results

Next up for the team is the OUA provincial championships, which McMaster is hosting at the Chedoke Golf Course in Hamilton. If you're in Hamilton on October 26th, stop by and cheer on the Maroon and Grey! And another MacTrack post, another well-written article by Laura Sinclair in the Sil. Expect her recap of Montreal to be out later this week.

Monday, October 7, 2013

McMaster Cross Country climbs CIS rankings- The Silhouette

Laura Sinclair has yet again written another fantastic article based on the Marauders results from the New Balance Vic Matthews open two weekends ago. The article also consists of some small feedback about the race from myself (Taylor Forbes) and a little inside info on what the men's goals are for the up and coming championship season in 3 weeks time.

You can check out the article here: McMaster Cross Country climbs CIS rankings

Race Recap: University of Waterloo Don Mills Open

It was an easy weekend for all but Austen Forbes, Megan Beverly and Lizz Hodgson, who travelled to Waterloo for the Don Mills Open. On the women's side, Megan ran to a 10th place finish, with Lizz not far behind in 13th. Austen came home with the bronze medal, the first men's individual podium this season. Most of the team will be competing this Saturday at the RSEQ-AUS Interlock in Montreal, the last race before championship season.


Other Results From Around the CIS:
Rouge et Or Invitational
Louisville Classic (Guelph, Western)

In other team news, the Trackie article profiling the Marauders, among others, went up this morning. 

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Mid-Season Predictions and Marauders.ca Article

The 2nd CIS-XC poll from the fine folks over at Montreal Endurance came out yesterday, with the men once again ranked 5th and the women 6th. There is also a recap of the Vic Matthews Open over on Marauders.ca, although there are a few mistakes regarding distances ran.